Milwaukee’s WUWM reports that Wisconsin's paper industry has faced many challenges as mills close and people switch to digital, but there is one sector of the paper industry that is growing: specialty paper.
"Specialty paper goes across a broad gamut of things," says Steve Ottone, technical service manager at Omya — a chemical industry company headquartered in Switzerland. "Think about the ways that paper touches your life. Say you have your morning cup of tea. In that tea bag what actually holds the tea?"
Specialty paper encompasses a variety of grades of paper. Specialty papers are designed for a specific purpose and are utilized in different industries like automotive and aerospace.
For an industry that’s seeking to reinvent itself, specialty paper holds a lot of potential, especially for a state like Wisconsin.
"Wisconsin is really, really strong in specialty papers. There’s literally thousands of different grades of specialty papers that are manufactured in Wisconsin," says Paul Fowler. He's the executive director of the Wisconsin Institute for Sustainable Technology at UW Stevens Point. He’s says there’s something that makes the paper business particularly unique in southeastern Wisconsin. That something is converters.
"Converters are those small and medium sized companies that take the outputs of the mills and convert them into useful products. There is a significant presence in southeastern Wisconsin," says Fowler.
Despite the dismal state of affairs for paper over the past decade, Fowler is optimistic for the industry. Last year, the direct output in Milwaukee County alone was around $760 million and employed over 1,500 people.
"There’s global megatrends occurring that gives a sense of optimism," he says.
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